Monday, March 28, 2011

Lenten Mid-week 3 - The Our Father Prayer

Third Mid-Week Service
The Our Father and the Sacrament
in the Passion of Christ
Matthew 6:5-14

Matthew 26:27-29 (ESV)
 26Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." 27And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, 28for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom."


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Lenten Sermon Series:
The Our Father and the Sacrament
in the Passion of Christ (Matthew 6:1-15)

In our Midweek services we have focused upon Jesus teaching us to pray to God as "Our Heavenly Father" God loves us despite our many sins and failings. And he has sent his Son to prove his love with his death on the cross for those many sins and failings. And last week Jesus taught us to pray "hallowed be thy Name." As God’s children we ask for our heavenly Father to keep his name holy among us by being faithful in both our teaching and our living. Tonight our Lord Jesus continues to teach us how to pray with "Thy Kingdom Come."

And how does Gods Kingdom Come?  God’s kingdom comes in the salvation that has been won by Jesus Christ. Beginning in the Garden of Eden satan stole humanity from God, man and woman by sin trade the image of God, for their own selfish desires. Satan accomplished this by tempting human beings to rebel against God and live a life on their own terms directed by their own reason and intellect rather than by the Word of God. But such a rebellion had a price: sin and misery and death. The things of the world are in the realm of the kingdom of satan. This explains why the world is the way it is. And here’s the scary part: people don’t know they are in satan’s kingdom. They don’t understand that by living for themselves they are living under satan’s rule. Indeed, every human being is born into satan’s kingdom of sin and death.

Yet, Jesus came to deliver us from satan’s kingdom and to bring us into God’s kingdom by dying for our sins. Sin is the problem. You can’t have sin and be in God’s kingdom. So Jesus came to remove the sin of mankind. For with his death on the cross mankind’s debt of sin to God, your sin and mine, was paid for and cancelled. And now there is forgiveness of sin. And where there is forgiveness of sin….there is peace with God. And with peace with God we enter the kingdom of God. That’s why through faith in Jesus Christ we are delivered from the kingdom of satan and enter the kingdom of God. Because in Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven and we have God’s peace. This is exactly what Paul says in his letter to the Colossians: "for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins."

When we pray "thy kingdom come" we are praying for many others to be delivered from the kingdom of satan and brought into the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ. We are praying for evangelism and missions.  When we are in the heat of the battle, when satan has us down, depressed, sick in sin, sick in health, scared of dying, scared of living, we pray, we cry out, as did St. Paul with the word “Marana tha, meaning, Our Lord, come!”(1 Cor 16:22)

And the Good News, the Gospel is that right now we are in the kingdom of God by faith…faith in Jesus Christ. But in a day known only to God Jesus Christ will return and take us into the kingdom of God in a new heaven and a new earth. A day is coming when we will no longer be in the kingdom of God by faith, but by sight. Perhaps the book of Revelation best summarizes what that kingdom will be like: "then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." This too is what we are praying for when we pray "thy kingdom come."

And as Luther asks in the Small Catechism, “How does God’s Kingdom come?  God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His Holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.”(SC)  And where does God’s Kingdom come to you?  God’s Kingdom comes to you in your baptism as “It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.”(SC)  And God’s Kingdom comes to you in the Sacrament of the Altar, in Holy Communion, as Christ speaks to you and gives you His true body and true blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.  Here Jesus gives a promise to you, even as He is risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, He promises of the Lord’s Supper to “drink it new in my Father’s kingdom.”(Mt 26:29)  Therefore, Christ is not far away from you in fact He is with you in the Sacrament of the Altar.   “Thy Kingdom comes” as Christ brings His Fathers Kingdom to you in His body and blood.  This is the reality of the Gospel, that is Jesus Christ is our Savior who truly came in the flesh and dwelt among us and this Christ, “God with us” truly gives us His Body and His Blood to His people in this Holy meal.

We pray to God, “Thy Kingdom come.”  Your prayers are heard, for Jesus Christ brings God’s kingdom to you in prayer. God’s Kingdom comes in the hearing of His Holy Word.  God’s Kingdom comes in your baptism, and in the Sacrament of Holy Communion.  God’s kingdom come to you to heal you from all that ails you, from all that has torn you down, from the sins which you have committed, from all that would cause you pain, God’s kingdom has come for you. 

It has been written that, “If we do not take what Scripture says concerning the presence of Christ with complete seriousness, then we have a wrong understanding of Christ.  Then also we have a wrong understanding of His Church....Then the church ceases to be what it has been in the world ever sine the incarnation of Christ, His death and His resurrection, and the institution of the Supper, to wit, the place of God’s love among men, a spiritual and bodily community in which we are in Christ and Christ is in us...The Word and the Sacrament, Gospel and Lord’s Supper, belong indissolubly together, because Christ the Lord is present in them and through them builds His Church on earth in divine omnipotence and love.  This He does neither through the Word alone, nor through the Sacrament alone, but through both of them together.”(Hermann Sasse)  Rejoice therefore, in Jesus Christ, Thy Kingdom has come for you.  Amen.

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